Friday, June 15, 2012

New York, New York!

This past weekend I went to visit the lovely Sarah Anderson in New York City. I'm kind of assuming that whoever is reading this is my friend on facebook, so I'm not reposting pictures, so follow along there.

Friday
I got on a 9 am train and got to NYC at noon. It was perfect timing. Sarah got off work at her internship for lunch to pick me up from Penn station. The day before they were busy with dinner, a show and taking care of ambassadors from other countries. It meant they let her have the rest of the day off so we could spend time together! We took the subway back to her office, (which is in the same building as the temple) and went to EuroPan in the same building for lunch. We both ordered the same thing: tomato, basil and some type of cheese (goat possibly?) paninis. It was super filling and delicious. We even ate them in Central Park which was so pretty! Then we walked back and put my stuff down in her office so I wouldn't have to lug it around all day.

We went to Broadway and looked for a show to see that night. We picked a new show called It's Nice Work If You Can Get It which stars Matthew Broderick. We spent a few hours in Times Square. We went to the huge Toys R Us. Inside we looked at the huge candies in the Wonka section, we walked through the Barbie Dream House and watched the huge ferris wheel. We went in the Disney store, which was really cool, there's a lot of Brave stuff there. We stopped for drinks at McDonald's since it was pretty hot out. I got a frozen strawberry lemonade, and we talked for awhile. Next we went to the M&M store and the Hershey's store. All of the stores have so much merchandise, and I'm not even sure who buys it all! Some are geared to really specific people and for really ridiculous prices. We passed a few sites on the way back to Sarah's office to get our stuff. We passed Rockefeller Plaza, Trump Tower, the Lego store and we went through Central Park again. We grabbed leftovers from the dinner her office hosted the night before. We ate on a random area of grass. It was cool that we were in the middle of the city, surrounded by buildings.

We went to our show and it was great! It was about prohibition and thus one of the main characters was a bootlegger. We honestly had no idea what it was about when we picked it but it ended up being a good one! The music was written by the Gershwins and it was actually all old music compiled into a musical. We had to run out as soon as it ended so we could catch our train onto Long Island. However, we did not count on getting caught in a crowd because of.... Ricky Martin?! He's starring in Evita at the moment and apparently he has a ton of fans. All of Times Square was packed with fans screaming for him. I thought he was cool in the 90's but I thought most people were over him, but not so. We missed our train so we tried to wait around for Matthew Broderick and the rest of the cast from our show. We waited for half an hour or so but nobody recognizable came out so we decided to leave so we would at least make the next train. We think a few drunk men tried to follow us on the subway going to our train, but we changed compartments and got off. Interesting stuff, that doesn't happen so much in Provo!

Saturday
Sarah had a dentist appointment so I slept in! We went into the city around eleven and started at the Natural History Museum. We basically toured the whole building which was so cool! They have areas for each part of the world and they showed how the early civilizations lived. One of the cooler areas contained a ton of dinosaur bones. They were really huge and cool. One of our favorites of the ancient animals was the turtle because it looked like it was grinning. We spent quite a few hours here, then we went and ate salad in front of the building. There was a super funny baby across from us that was excited to be surrounded with so many interesting things. Any new noise he heard, he would look at it and smile or try and reach for it.

We walked to Shake Shack, which is a famous fast food restaurant only found in NYC. According to Sarah, it is mentioned or seen within a bunch of movies, so that's pretty awesome. Then we went to Central Park again. We saw Belvedere Castle which is in the middle of the park. I went up to the top area and looked out  at the city while Sarah got directions to our next place. While walking around the park, we saw two couples taking wedding pictures. What a gorgeous place to take them! We walked to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We didn't have as much time so we walked through only a few sections. We started in the Greek section, looked at some European Victorian era things, Christian art, the Egyptian section, and some American art.

The plan was to go to the Wicked and Godspell lotteries to see if we could get tickets for either. Sarah had done them both before and knew we needed cash, which she didn't have. We tried to look for an ATM everywhere but we couldn't find the right bank. We ended up going into Staples so she could buy something with her debit card and get cash back. We then ran to the subway and from the subway ran to the right street off Broadway to get in the lottery. The drawing is usually at 6 on the dot, and we put our names in two minutes before that. We didn't have to wait long before they started calling names. Sarah's was the second one called. We were stunned, she's tried at the lottery about five times with a bunch of people and nobody has ever been called. We were shocked beyond belief when mine was the third name called. Our cards must have been stuck together on top, that's the only explanation I can think of. Each card gets up to two tickets so we had four tickets between the two of us. None of her family or friends could come, so we didn't know what to do. Other people noticed our situation and tried to get our attention so we would give them our extras. Too many people were involved and it was way too overwhelming so we ended up putting it back into the lottery, which was the best way to do it anyway.

There was two hours to go before our show so we got dinner. The entire time we were just amazed how lucky we were that we got in and on a Saturday! There was about 80 people there and maybe 30 tickets so only about fifteen names were called. We were so shocked we both got called, the chances of it happening were so slim. We made our way back to the theater after dinner. When the ushers pointed us to our seats we were even more shocked. We were on the front row! What?!? It was all too exciting, I was highly overwhelmed. It was exciting enough I was seeing Wicked on Broadway, but the front row?! We sat next to a couple and they were the ones who got our extra tickets, so their gratefulness made it even better. They agreed that they were also lucky, so we were all just starstruck and amazed altogether. I about cried when the curtain came up. It was so amazing. After the show Sarah and I grabbed dessert and got on the subway and train to her house.

Sunday
Church was at one so Sarah, Galena (the other intern at Sarah's office) and I chilled for awhile at Sarah's house. Then the three of us took the train in and ate lunch at her office. We went to a YSA ward in the building the Manhattan temple is in. It was great to be with people my age again! Sometimes I just miss the BYU atmosphere where all my neighbors go to my ward and I know everyone. It sure is different in a family ward, where I have to drive to meet friends and go to activities. After church, I had an hour where Sarah, Galena and I talked and said goodbye before I got on my train.

It was such an exhausting weekend and I was so sad to leave New York! I really did make the most of my weekend though, I wouldn't change a thing!

2 comments:

  1. Laura, thanks so much for taking the time to visit Shake Shack in NYC.

    Hope you had an awesome vacation, and our team can’t wait to see you again next time you’re in the city (or DC, or Philly, or Miami...we have new Shacks!)

    -Brandy, Shake Shack

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  2. Sounds like the odds were ever in your favor. :-D

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